The Meal: Allan Brown: How to murder a burger

They may never be a classy meal, but the hamburgers at West took the meaning of junk food to a whole new level

Does anything evoke the Britain of the 1980s in the same way as the American-themed burger joint? You must remember them. They seemed to be on every street corner for a while, providing much-needed sustenance to a nation that had spent the afternoon sitting in the bath in a pair of Levi’s 501s, listening to I Heard It Through the Grapevine. These places had walls hung with rusty street signs and stuffed marlin. Their menus were covered in approximations of Marlon Brando in The Wild One and of Marilyn Monroe having her skirt hoisted. Everything came with ketchup and mustard, including the coffee.

My personal favourite was the Buck Rogers Burger Station, in Glasgow’s city centre. This place tried to convince diners not only that they were eating somewhere in Wyoming, but that it was presently the year 2199 and Twiki would be along to take the dessert order any